Marking a tricentennial

On Feb. 4, 1884, a construction engineer named L.D. McGlashan anchored a barge in the Arkansas River near the rock for which Little Rock was named. Construction was beginning for a railroad crossing known as the Junction Bridge. The bridge, which required removal of part of the rock, was completed in December 1884.

“In 1932, the rock suffered one more reduction,” writes Bill Worthen, who headed the Historic Arkansas Museum for many years. “The Civitan Club proposed marking the Little Rock as a historic site, but it concluded that the railroad tracks in the area would endanger tourists. It persuaded Missouri Pacific to allow a portion of the rock to be removed and transported to a more accessible spot. Thus a 4,700-pound piece of rock was detached without damage to the foundation of Junction Bridge and moved to the grounds of City Hall.

“In 1970, Junction Bridge was rebuilt to bring it into conformity with the needs of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. A new pier had to be constructed in the river off the Point of Rocks to support the south lift tower, and the reinforced concrete rest pier at the rock became the support shelf for the southernmost truss section of the bridge.”

In 2001, the bridge was donated to the city of Little Rock since it was no longer being used by trains. The city later transformed it into a pedestrian crossing.

“The city removed some of the dirt surrounding what remains of the rock formation and created a plaza that opened in 2010,” Worthen writes. “The plaza includes several plaques describing the history of the Point of Rocks. Visual sources for how the rocks looked before progress took its toll are rare and ambiguous. Clearest from maps is the extension of the point from the south bank into the river. Less certain is the actual height and massing of the rock.

“A print from Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper of Sept. 5, 1868, shows the bluff at that point, but the height of the river is uncertain, and the extent of the rock outcropping remains questionable. What’s known is that much of the Point of Rocks at the river was removed and that a bridge abutment rests on the rock, encasing the bluff above it, with the track bed resting on the bluff as it extends south.”

This month marks the beginning of a year-long celebration of the tricentennial of French explorer Jean-Baptiste Benard de La Harpe’s 1722 trip up the Arkansas River. That celebration was the subject of Sunday’s column. What’s known as the La Petite Roche Tricentennial is coordinated by Little Rock public relations executive Denver Peacock.

“The tricentennial provides residents and visitors with the opportunity to rediscover the rock and celebrate the diverse history of our region,” Peacock says.

Rather than just celebrate the past, though, Peacock has big ideas that would help take the

Little Rock-North Little Rock riverfront to the next level. Individual and corporate funders need to step forward to make those dreams a reality.

The first project consists of improvements around La Petite Roche, making it easier for visitors to take their photo with the rock. In addition to increased accessibility, Peacock and others on the tricentennial task force would like to see the rock lighted at night in coordination with the lighted bridges across the Arkansas River.

Speaking of those lighted bridges, another proposed project is lighting the Broadway Bridge if a corporate sponsor can be found.

In April 2013, Entergy Arkansas announced that it was donating $2 million to help light the Junction Bridge, Main Street Bridge and Clinton Presidential Park Bridge. Hugh McDonald, who was Entergy Arkansas’ CEO at the time, called it a “transformational project.” The donation was made to mark the company’s 100th anniversary.

“You only turn 100 once,” McDonald said. “So we wanted it to be special — special for decades to come and for all who visit Arkansas and visit Little Rock so they would remember it. It also had to connect with the business we’re in.”

At a news conference announcing the project, Phil O’Donnell of Philips Lighting said: “The system opens tremendous possibilities.”

Philips had earlier lit the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House and Empire State Building. The system allows numerous colors to be programmed for events. When fast-growing Simmons Bank purchased the former Acxiom Building in the River Market District, George Makris Jr., the bank’s visionary chairman, saw to it that the building was lighted in a way that could be coordinated with the bridges.

The Broadway Bridge wasn’t included in the original Entergy donation because it was about to be torn down and rebuilt.

The biggest idea of them all would be construction along the river of the nation’s only museum devoted entirely to the Trail of Tears. Several Little Rock residents have been quietly pushing for such a museum for years.

Trail of Tears is the term used for the journey of Native Americans from their ancestral homes in the Southeast to what’s now Oklahoma. During the decade after passage of the federal Indian Removal Act in 1830, an estimated 60,000 Native Americans, African slaves, white spouses and Christian missionaries traveled through Arkansas.

What’s now North Little Rock was the most active site during the removal. Members of the Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), Chickasaw and Cherokee tribes arrived on the railroad that connected Memphis and Little Rock. Choctaw and Chickasaw were ferried across the river to Little Rock to proceed down the Southwest Trail.